Romanian young mother sacrificed her life to give birth to her daughter, refusing abortion and immediate treatment for her aggressive cancer

On March 3^rd, Romania saw a special memorial service, one for a young mother. Messages of condolences and comfort for the family poured in on social media and local websites. This happened while, at the beginning of the Great Lent, in February 2017, Romanians were offered an example of motherly loving sacrifice.

When she was four-months pregnant with her daughter, Roxana Dragomir, from Vrancea county, found out that she had bone cancer. The doctors recommended immediate abortion and start of an aggressive treatment to stop the disease. But she refused to put her life first over her daughter’s and she waited until she could give birth to the little girl, whom she named Maya.

Roxana’s friends and relatives wrote about her giving birth on a Facebook support event they had set up for her:

To survive, Maya had to be brought into the world prematurely, then her mother had to suffer a leg amputation. Roxana only saw Maya for a few moments at birth, as the baby needed to be kept into an incubator, while Roxana had to be rushed to another hospital to have one of her legs amputated.

After birth, the family felt hopeful as the young mother immediately started treatment at an oncology hospital in Turkey.

But Roxana eventually lost the battle with cancer on February 24^th, 2017.

On her personal blog, Alexandra Nadane, President of Studenti pentru Viata association (a pro-life students’ organization from Romania), wrote:

Roxana Dragomir, a Romanian woman of 26, confirmed how far her love could go: `Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends` (John 15, 13). Roxana has proven herself both a mother and a friend to her daughter, by fulfilling the word of Lord Jesus Christ. She has thus become real and contemporary proof that the Lord’s word can be obeyed today. May God rest her soul in peace and keep her husband and daughter worthy of her!

The last photo of Roxana and her daughter Maya together: